In the second language reading class, readers try to use strategies that help them
comprehend the texts or facilitate their learning when they face reading problems. To
comprehend a reading text, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and reading for
comprehension must be performed (Anderson, 2003).
Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies and Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a constructive process by which readers use both
cognitive and metacognitive strategies to build their understanding of a text (Dole et al.,
1991). Cognitive strategies directly involve the target language and include different
methods such as summarizing and deductive reasoning, predicting, using organization,
taking notes on the main points, using prior knowledge, and guessing meaning from the
context (Oxford, 1990). Metacognitive strategies are actions that allow readers to control
their own reading; in other words, they are strategies based on “thinking about thinking.”
That is, the readers know when and how to use these strategies and adapt them to suit
their reading purposes. Metacognitive strategies consist of planning, evaluating, and
regulating one’s own skills These include such skills as determining the reading task,
evaluating the predictions, focusing on important information, relating important
information, ignoring unimportant new words, checking the effectiveness of guessing
meaning, re-reading relevant information when failure in understanding, and checking the
effectiveness of achieving the whole reading task (Oxford, 1990).
Many researchers on reading strategy instruction (Duffy, 2002; Palincsar &
Brown, 1980; Salataci & Akyel, 2002) confirm that metacognitive strategy training
improves students’ reading comprehension. It gives students a chance to plan before
reading, control their reading process, organize their own rules, and evaluate themselves.